An early 8:30am draw was on the cards, thankfully it is 5 mins from my house so a nice lay-in way past 7am. No wind and not too cold, but we had seen an awful lot of cold rain overnight and Saturday was cool with a nippy northerly breeze. I wasn't expecting most of us to do great, maybe 8 round to 13 would be the best area to draw, but that was one section, the other 2 were the rest of the pegs on either bank (1-7 and 14-20) if I am correct. I would be happy with any peg from 5 up and around to 15 to be fair. So after a natter and a cuppa from Denise we drew our pegs.
No surprise to see drawbags Mark Thorne and Steve 'Peanut' Howell draw the favoured pegs 11 and 10 respectively. But my favourite peg on the lake, peg 12, went to Russ Peck. Me, well my rather dire attempt at drawing a 'flyer' failed again when peg 17 was my pluck from the basket. I pushed my barrow round and proceeded to set my kit up...........on peg 18. Only pointed out by John Dursley who was meant to be on there. So I shuffled along, as did Wayne on peg 17 (moved to 16).
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| Brick Lake peg 17 at dusk.... |
A waggler for maggot at 25m, a small cage feeder for the same area.
A topkit aimed for roach down my right edge didn't give a bite, just a snag that ate hooks!!
A line at 14m for banded 4mm over wet 4's and micros. DT RBS Open Water in 0.8g.
A line at 11m for maggots over my So Simple Bait's BMG/Bog combo using a light 0.3g DT F1/Silvers float. Lastly a meat rig for just past the shelf at around 6m off at a slight angle to the right. I used a DT RBS Margin for this rig.
I had, by the obvious fish activity, decided that it was only the section money to fish for, maybe the silvers if I got lucky as silvers ace Ron Stark was on peg 8 and I fancied that to produce. The overall silvers winner and match winners get the same prize and 3 section winners are paid.
At the all-in I was not ready, but I was not the only one. But I got a smallish helping of feed onto the various lines before trying the waggler, hoping for an early carp or 2 should they be in the vicinity.
Within half an hour I had bumped a decent fish, probably a liner, and I had a smallish skimmer fall off just out of netting range. But it was slow. Simon Ryall on peg 20 had lost a carp and landed one. While I could see pegs 10, 11 and 12 all had caught a few carp as expected.
I carried on fishing the waggler as was John on peg 18, he had a couple small skimmers but it wasn't fast and furious. Then he had a moment....He went to sink his line and the top half of the top section of his waggler rod snapped, putting paid to his running line float fishing for the day.
It was about an hour into the match when I had my first few fish, all 2-3oz roach on the waggler, I had 4 of these. A few other peeps I could see had yet to catch, or even have a bite.
In on the pole line and I tried the long pellet line and expected a fish or 2 from here, but it never happened, actually I never caught a fish off that area all day, similarly my banker meat line never saw the float move in all the times I tried it throughout the day.
A couple of hours passed and only the odd roach was entering the keepnet, while the 3 up the far end never seemed to stop catching, Russ Peck and Mark Thorne were even catching on the pellet wag.
For the rest of it, well it was tricky going. Just the odd carp here of there coming out to Emma Drysdale and Matt Culpin on the pegs opposite. Simon on peg 20 was on 2 carp but not seen a fish for a while. Jon Page on p1 was blanking, waiting for his 1st bite, he was not the only one either.
At the halfway stage I managed to catch an eel over the groundbait and then a 12oz skimmer on the feeder, my only bite on that even though I only chucked it out while having a cuppa. Bites on the waggler had stopped.
John had a couple decent skimmers on the pole but was getting missed bites but went on to catch an eel and lose a foul hooked one.
Paul Berry came around and chatted for a while and he said Saturday was tricky going and only had a couple decent skimmers.
A few rig adjustments thanks to missed bites and liners saw another skimmer find it's way to my keepnet with 2hrs to go, this was followed by 3 more, the largest around 3lb. Then it died again.
Though Jonny on peg 1 did hook a carp, probably foul hooked, his 1st bite of the day.....and he lost it after playing it a while!!
A couple roach on the waggler and another over the groundbait pushed me into the last hour probably just ahead of John on peg 18, but then he had another skimmer of 2lb or so and lost a foul hooked one. Then I managed another 2 skimmers around 1lb each. But with 30 minutes to go John again had an eel and a small skimmer. I never had another bite.
Elsewhere it looked close for the outright win between pegs 11 and 12, Mark Thorne and Russ Peck going fish for fish all day. Adrian Jeffery had 3 and lost 1 carp I think, all in the last 45 minutes from peg 15, Wayne Staples added 2 or 3 skimmers in the remaining 20 minutes to add to his few roach.
The all-out was called, my kit was packed away and put in the car. I reckoned on 8lb of silvers, John said I had a couple pounds more than him, he said he had 8lb.....
I caught up with the scales at peg 11 and 6lb 5oz was top silvers and 70lb was top overall to Peanut on p10. Mark Thorne had 115lb and just edged Russ into 2nd, Russ had 113lb so well done those 2. Adrian had 12lb for his carp.
Not much followed as Wayne went into the silvers lead with 6lb 6oz.
I then chucked my 8lb of fish in the sling and onto the scales and they had grown to 16lb.....oooppss!!
Slightly out there then. John's 8lb was 12lb, so he was slightly out also.
Simon on peg 20 ended with 3 carp and they amassed 24lb and he won the section with that.
Results-rounded to the nearest lb:
1st, Mark Thorne, p11, 115lb
2nd, Russ Peck, p12, 113lb
3rd, Steve Howell, p10, 70lb
Silvers:
1st, Lee Williams, p17, 16lb
2nd, John Dursley, p18, 12lb
So sixty-odd quid in the pocket on a tricky day was a decent result, but as expected it fished hard for the majority, and I made the right choice targeting the silvers, though I didn't expect to top the pegs I did. I learned a few things during the day which will defo come in handy.
I fed nearly 2kg of groundbait, 1/2pt of caster and 1pt of maggots through this.
Next up for me is Viaduct Silvers League round 5......though I may go somewhere Saturday.
Until then, enjoy yourselves.
Lee
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